Otto von Below

Otto Ernst Vincent Leo von Below (18 January 1857-15 March 1944) was a general of the German Empire during the Eastern Front and Italian Front of World War I.

Biography
Below was born in Danzig in Prussia, and began his military service in 1875 at the age of 18. At the outbreak of World War I he commanded the First Reserve Corps on the Eastern Front, fighting at battles such as Gumbinnen and Tannenberg. In 1916, he transferred to Macedonia, fighting the Serbs and the British and French forces sent to assist them, and a year later he commanded the Austro-Hungarian and German forces that were dispatched from the Baltic States to fight the Italian Army. At the Battle of Caporetto, he won a crucial victory over the Italian forces using the Sturmtruppen elite assault infantry to his advantage.

During Germany's Spring Offensive of early 1918, von Below was sent to the Western Front to participate in the seemingly-final German offensive that would win the war. His tactics at Caporetto were expected to win against the British at Arras; when he failed to defeat the British ("The Black Day of the German Army", as Erich Ludendorff called it), the Germans' offensive was repelled and the Allies carried out their counterattack in the Final Allied Offensives of August-November. In 1919 he retired and was acquitted of war crimes, and died in 1944.